Port relief arch



April 14, 1925.

H. H. SKILES PORT RELIEF ARCH Filed Ma 8, 1925 2 Sheets-Sheet. 1

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April 14, 1925. 1,533,954

H. H. SKILES PORT RELIEF ARCH Filed May 8, 1923 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Pitentednpi. 14, 1925. v p

UNITED ST AT ES PATENT F To all whom it may concern.-

or" the vertical side walls, while the 1,533,954 FICE.

HUGH H. SKEDES, OI FAIBMONT, WEST VIRGINIA.

PORT RELIEF ARCH.

Application filed May 8,

Be it known that I, HUGH H. SKIL'ES, a citizen of the United States, residing at airmont, count ofMarion, and State of West Virginia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Port Relief Arches, of which the following is a' specification.

This. invention relates to port relief arches for glassfurnaces and the like, and

has for one of its objects to provide an arch construction of this character which will be simple and inexpensive to install and more ei'dcient in use than those which have beeln heretofore proposed.

Glass furnaces are usually constructed with an arched top wall, the arch extending from and resting upon the vertical side walls, which latter are provided at suitable points with a plurality of ports or openings, through which the hot from the combustion chamber into the melt ing chamber. 'llhese ports or openings are customarily located in the upper portions side walls, their upper boundaries lying in thesame plane as the joint between the side walls and the arched top. wall or roof of the furnace.

order to bridge these openings, which may range from six inches to four, feet or more in width, it has heretofore been the practice to construct a compound arch of silica or fire brick, one portion of the said arch being curved in the vertical plane of other portion of the arch is curved in the plane of the ciently bind them together arched roof portion. in other words, two arches have been necessary, built at an obtuse angle to each other, with the concave portion of the arch lying in the plane of the roof, abutting an end face of the arch lying in the vertical plane of the side walls. The two arches are thus jointed at this meeting point, but it has been impossible to efiiwith the result that when they are subjected to the high temperatures employed in glass furnace practice, the expansion of the roof would cause a separation of the arches at their meeting points, with the result that this joint soon became disrupted or defective. The breaking of this joint gives the fire in the furnace an opening to attack both the relief arch in the furnace crown or roof, as well as the arch over the port, and in actual practice it frequently becomes necessary to gases are introduced -vention, illustrating in 1923. Serial- Iio. 687,509.

" draw the fire from the furnace and cool it off in order that the damage may be re paired. This naturally results in a considerable loss of time and a lowerin of the furnace output, and it is provide an arch construction which will prevent such losses.

very deslrable to It is therefore an important object of the present invention to provide an arch con struction for the ports of glass furnaces which will obviate the defects above men tioned and which will permit of the continuous use of the furnaces for long periods of time without the necessity of replacement.

It is a still further object of the invention to provide an arch of such a construction that should one of its component parts become defective or burnt out, such part may be readily removed, without removing the entire arch, and a new one substituted, which of course may be accomplished in a much less time than would be necessary if the entire arch had to be replaced,

With the above and other objects in view,

which will appear as the description proceeds, the invention consists in the novel details of construction and combinations and arrangements of parts more fully hereinafter disclosed and particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

eferring to the accompanyin drawings forming a part of this speci cation, in which like numerals designate like parts in all the views;

Figure 1 is a fragmentary perspective view of the interior of a glass furnace showinga portion of one of the vertical side walls and of the furnace crown or arched roof wall, and also showing one of the ports with an arch constructed in accordance with the present invention in place thereover;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view through the arch shown in Fig. 1, and through a portion of the furnace crown and port opening, taken approximately on the plane indicated by the line 22 of said Figure 1, looking in the direction of the arrows;

Fig. 3 is a top plan view of the parts shown in Figs. 1 and 2, looking in the direction of the arrow A in the last mentioned figure; and,

Fig. 4 is an isometric view of an arch constructed in accordance with the present indetail the shapes of the component blocks of the arch.

Referring more particularly to the said t ll drawings the numeral 5 indicates one of the vertical sidewalls of a glass furnace of any suitable construction, which is provided with one or more ports or openings 6, through which the hot gases from the combustion chamber may enter the melting chamber. The said furnace is also provided with the roof or crown 7 which may take the form of an arch constructed of silica.or other fire brick, and extending from one side wall 5 to the other, as is well known in this art. The crown 7 meets the side wall 5 in the plane indicated by the line 8, which plane also constitutes the upper boundary of the port 6, see Fig. 1.

The said port 6 is bridged by the arch construction 9, constituting the present invention, which arch construction comprises the side or abutment blocks 10, 11, 12 and 13 and the intermediate blocks 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21, and the key blocks 22 and 23. The side blocks, 10, 11, 12 and 13 are provided with the straight sides 25 and 26 and with the inclined sides 27 and 28, as will be clear from the drawings. The intermediate blocks, as well as the key blocks are all formed with the converging sides when viewed in plan substantially as shown in the drawings. As will be clear from Fig. 3,,the lower edges of each of the intermediate blocks and of the key blocks are shorter than the upper edges of the said blocks, whereb the well known wedging action is secure by means of which the arch is enabled to withstand pressure from above.

The construction so far described does not materially differ from the standard construction of arches in masonry, but it will be further noted that each of the intermediate blocks and the key blocks are further tapered or made wedge-shaped in a plane at right angles to the convergence of the sides of the blocks. This is clearly shown in Figs. 3 and 4 from which it will be seen that the lines 30, 31, 32, 33, 34'and 35 all converge so that the undersurface of the various intermediate and key blocks are of less area than the upper surfaces which appear in Figs. 3 and 4. It thus results that pres sure from above in a vertical downward direction is also met by the resistance of the wedges thus formed and effectively overcome. In other words, due to the fact that the intermediate and key blocks are tapered or wedged in two directions, the arch will effectively resist strains or pressure not only in the direction of the arrow B in Figs. 2 and 4, but also in the direction of the arrow C.

It thus results that the port openings, such as 6, may be bridged by single arches constructed in accordance with the above disclosure in lieu of the usual two ring arch now customarily employed, which single arches will resist the transverse and vertical strains and pressure imposed upon them. Furthermore, inasmuch as only a single arch is employed there is no point at the meeting joint of the furnace crown and the upper side of the port which may open or become defected under the influence of heat, as a result of-the expansion of the crown and side walls. It therefore results that by employing the present arch construction a structure may be had which is fully as strong, if not stronger, than when the old two ring arch construction is employed, and which willnot be subject to a cracking and opening of the joint between the two rings of the arch. It furthermore results that since this point of defection is eliminated, the arch will not be subject to rapid deterioration under the influence of the tem ratures employed, and that it will seldom necessary to replace the same.

Of course after long continued use, some ofv the blocks may burn out and it is a comparatively simple matter to break out the defective block and to replace it with a new one without removin the entire arch.

It is obvious that t ose skilled in the art may vary the details of construction as well as the arrangement of parts without departing from the spirit of the invention, and therefore it is not wished to be limited to the above disclosure except as may be required by the accompanying claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In a glass furnace, a side wall pm vided with a port opening; a substantially horizontal crown supported by said wall; and a single arch extending in the planeof saidcrown bridging said opening, arranged to resist downward and lateral pressure across said opening.

2. In a glass furnace, a side wall provided with an extended port opening; a substantially" horizontal crown supported by said wall; and a combined port and relief arch extending in the plane of said crown and bridging said opening, comprisin rality of blocks tapered in two irections and arranged to resist downward and lateral pressure across said opening.

3. A combined port and relief arch for glass furnaces comprising a plurality of tapered blocks, adapted when assembled to resist pressure in two directions at substantially right angles to one another, the under faces of certain of said blocks having angu larly disposed portions adapted to form the top wall of a' port opening.

4. A combined ort and relief arch for glass furnaces havmgside walls and a substantially horizontal crown su ported thereby, comprising a plurality 0? blocks, each of which is tapered in two directions, whereby when assembled they will resist pressures at substantially right an les to one another, in the planes of said W0. and crown.

a plu- 5.'A combined port and relief arch for glass furnaces having side walls provided with extended port openings, and a substantially horizontal crown supported by said 5 walls, said arch comprising side, intermediate and key blocks, each tapered in two directions at substantially right angles to one another, whereby when assembled to constitute the top wall of said ort open- 0 ings, said blocks will resist both ateral and vertical pressures, across said openings in the planes of said walls and crown.

6. In a glass furnace, a side wall provided with a port opening adjacent its upper edge; an arched crown supported by said wall; and a combined port and relief arch in said crown bridging said opening, one surface of which constitutes the upper wall of said port, said arch comprising a plurality of blocks tapered in two directions, whereby they will resist both lateral and vertical pressures.

HUGH H. SKILES. 

